Two State Prisons Suspending Operations

March 02, 2018CrainMedia

GRADY, Ark. (AP) – Officials are suspending operations at two minimum-security prisons in Arkansas, saying the correctional officers are needed at other prisons in the state.

The Arkansas Department of Correction said Thursday that inmates will be reassigned to other units. The affected units are the Cummins Modular Unit in Grady, which has 300 beds for male inmates, and the Tucker Re-entry Center in Tucker, which has 124 beds for female inmates.

The agency’s director, Wendy Kelley, says correctional officers will be moved to the Cummins, Varner and Tucker maximum-security prisons.

Kelley says “immediate action” was needed to address a shortage of correctional officers in the state. She says the department had 560 vacancies as of this week.